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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There’s no reason for a little kid to have a tablet. It’s all for the convenience of the parents. I say this as someone who will let my 3 year old use my phone to watch shows on plane rides (we don’t have a tablet). [/quote]

Do you really think it’s superior to use a phone over a tablet? The entire reason we got a tablet for travel is because of safety. Kid has no ability to see ads that may be scary or inappropriate, can’t click anything or navigate to inappropriate content or images by accident. It is idiotic to give a small child a device with internet access, even just for a few minutes. [/quote]

DP but yes, it is a superior because it communicates to the child that this is a very occasional thing where they are borrowing a parent's device for a temporary use. And it's really easy to monitor a 3 yr old using a phone to watch a show on an airplane -- you are sitting right next to them. When I used to do this, the phone wouldn't even be on wifi -- we'd just connect to the plane's in flight entertainment and limit it to the kid's programming, which is very easy.

Buying a small child a dedicated tablet communicates to them that they have an entitlement to access that screen. After all, it is "theirs." I would delay that as long as possible.

Our kid's first dedicated screen was a Kindle (regular kindle, not a kindle fire, with parental locks and not connected to internet without our permission) at age 8 which she used to read books we downloaded for her at home and while traveling. And she was very proprietary about that screen. It was "hers." Which was fine because it was a perfectly appropriate screen use for that age.

Whe won't get a phone or tablet of her own until high school. She's currently 11 and we do sometimes hear about how other kids have them but mostly she is okay with our rules. We do allow her access to a WhatsApp group via one of our devices so she can participate in a text conversation with friends, but this group is monitored by almost all the parents in the group and she only has access when we give it to her. Usually the access is scheduled so that all the kids are on at once and can chat and there's a designated end time. So no reason for her to have her own device yet.[/quote]

I still think this is silly. What if you also want to watch a show on the plane? Again, I don’t understand why people are so black and white about screens/tablets. Our kid’s has nothing on it except a few shows we hand picked and downloaded. No Amazon kids subscription, no games, no YouTube kids. Why would I want to hold a phone for her and watch a tiny screen on the plane when I can give her an appropriately sized, safe device while I watch my own show for 30 min on a plane? Sounds like you are just cheap and pretending there are benefits to not having a dedicated device for this activity.

Even just scrolling through movie choices or the main Amazon/Netflix Home Screen to get to children’s content often shows images of horror movies. This was what prompted us to get a tablet. Total control and safety and no danger of even seconds of exposure to scary stuff. For some reason horror movies have become so ubiquitous on all platforms, and we found this was the only way to keep kids totally safe.[/quote]

DP. It’s not silly, it’s intentional. What’s silly is you can’t seem to understand why people would have different rules than you.

I also hate how these cheap and crappy tablets are marketed as kid/family items. Every prime day, Amazon is shoving them down our throats. No thanks.[/quote]

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